Koinobori Kauai 2016

The first question you may have is what is Koinobori? As you may know, Kauai is wonderfully multicultural & the Japanese culture is very prominent in the islands. Koinobori means “carp streamer” in Japanese. They are those beautiful koi carp shaped kits you sometimes see at Japanese events. For Koinobori, they are flown to celebrate Children’s Day, a […]

A Beautiful Stamp of a Beautiful Place

A short post today, but worth mentioning, especially for everyone who loves Hawaii like we do. The US Postal Service is issues a new stamp & it features Haleakala State Park on Maui. Mostly, we just think this is a very beautiful image — the volcano with God’s rainbow draped across it is stunning. The […]

Render Unto God

Now that taxes are over, paid, done for a year, we wanted to consider the other half of the verses we posted yesterday from Matthew 22 — Render Unto God What is God’s. We were looking on the internet for more about this subject & came across the sermon by S. Baring-Gould about farm work… […]

Tax Day

Well, it only comes once a year… We hope that your taxes are done & that you received a whopping refund… at least charitable giving is tax deductible, & for this we are grateful. Of course taxes, like death, will always be with us. Even Jesus spoke of taxes & the need to render to […]

Fellowship of the Whales

Yet another great event at our public libraries, in this case Kapaa. The film Fellowship of the Whales will be shown on April 22 at 7 pm. Here’s a short description of the film: “Over the course of one incredible year, track the comings and goings of a baby humpback whale as she learns survival skills […]

It’s National Library Week!

Somehow it slipped our notice that this week is National Library Week, but now that it’s been brought to our attention, we wanted to share. The week runs from April 10-16. During this time our Hawaii libraries will be offering free educational & entertainment programs. It seems on Kauai that some of the programs will […]

The Importance of Shoes

We admit it, we’ve been a bit fixated on shoes the last few days. Except for fashion considerations, most people don’t really think much about shoes & here in the islands perhaps even less than most other places. Here we feel like we’re being formal if our slippers (flip-flops) match. But we’re farmers too, so […]

Thoughts on Charity

Our recent experience with the very great & much appreciated charity of Craig R. & his donation of shoes & sock to the kids who visit Makanalani made us think about charity & what it means as a Christian. Of course Christians have always been known for their charity, following the example set by Jesus, […]

Young Life Oahu at Makanalani

Makanalani recently hosted 9th graders from Young Life Oahu. We always have such fun with this group & this year we got a bonus. After the 9th graders, we we treated to a visit from Young Lives — teen moms & babies. This is a group of amazing young women. They were able to learn […]

Shoes for the Makanalani Kids!

Last summer around 4th of July weekend we found a wallet outside JoJo’s Shave Ice when we were down there working.  I was concerned about getting the wallet back as soon as possible to the owner so that he would not have a problem with ID and traveling back to the mainland, so I went […]